Telecom stocks down over 4%

Telecom stocks on Thursday fell in the range of 1 per cent to 4 per cent amid reports that companies face significant spectrum charge demand from the government.

Bharti Airtel slumped 4.02 per cent to close at Rs 312.40. Reliance Communications dropped by 4.27 per cent to Rs 67.20, while Idea Cellular declined by 1.22 per cent to close at Rs 109.10.

"Shares of telecom companies saw selling pressure in the light of uncertainty due to the reports that the government is demanding additional money for their permits and airwaves. Bharti and Rcom were down close to 4 per cent each," said Nagzi K Rita, chairman &

MD, Inventure Growth and Securities.

As per news reports, Department of Telecommunications has raised demand of around Rs 877.6 crore (Rs 8.77 billion) from Vodafone as spectrum charges for the period between 2008-09 and 2011-12.

Every operator has to pay various kinds of annual charges like spectrum usage charge, licence fee which is based on their revenue earned from telecom services.